Jason West
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Jason West is the mayor of the village of New Paltz, and a member of the Green Party.
After an unsuccessful run for the US House in 2002 on the Green Party ticket, he was elected mayor of New Paltz in 2003, and in 2004 West performed the first same-sex marriages in New York.
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[edit] Background
Jason was raised in Latham, New York, and is a member of the Shaker High School class of 1995. He attended SUNY New Paltz from 1995-2000, where he completed coursework for a BA in History and a BS in Visual Arts. However, he did not receive either degree or diploma due to outstanding bills. West has been a Housepainter from the age of 15, and worked as a puppeteer for children before being elected mayor [1].
[edit] Mayoral History
[edit] Summary
Elected Mayor of New Paltz in the spring of 2003, Jason West has gained international attention, initially as part of the first Green Party majority elected in New York State and later for risking criminal prosecution to marry 25 same sex couples. Mayor West is one of only a handful of public officials to attempt same-sex marriages (see Same-sex Civil Weddings).
Mayor West was named the Best New Mayor of 2003 by Hudson Valley Magazine. He was honored by such organizations as the New York State Senate Democratic Conference, the California State Legislature and community organizations from around the country. He has been profiled in such magazine as the New York Times Magazine, Plenty, Out, The Advocate and Jane.
[edit] Campaigning
Many of West's campaign tactics were highly controversial. He was known to attain his victory upset by mobilizing the Student voting bloc. He did this with a variety of techniques. One of his campaign supporters was known to dress in a chicken suit in order to attract students into voting for West. West also coordinated a van shuttle to get students from campus to the polls.
[edit] Partisanship Controversy
West's appointment to office met with controversy due to his affiliation with the Green Party. All former New Paltz Mayoral candidates professed no allegiance to political factions. Initially Mayor West, Julia Walsh and Rebbeca Rotzler ran on the Green Party platform. To meet the expected requirements of non-partisanship however, their platform was temporarily named the Innovation Platform. This was later changed to the New Paltz Greens ( which is not officially related to the Green Party ) in order to maitain a green party identity without formally violating the principle of non-partisanship that was an informal criterion in the New Paltz community. Some claim that West and his running mates were always open about their political affiliations, others challenge that claim citing their history of organizational name changing. Some claim that West and Rotzler are members of the Green Party and Walsh is an independent. While Jenny Loeb of NORML claims that Julia Walsh is a member of the Democratic party as indicated by her on the New Paltz Green Party chapter page.
West further exacerbated partisanship tensions by joining the steering committee of the Young Elected Officials Network, which many claim is a proxy for the Democratic party.
[edit] Same-sex Civil Weddings
On February 26, 2004, he drew national attention to New Paltz when he announced that he would be performing same-sex civil weddings. Within the first day, he had performed 25 such ceremonies, although their precise legal status is that of non-legal. On March 2, he was charged with 19 misdemeanor counts of "solemnizing marriages without a license" by Ulster County District Attorney Donald Williams. According to Williams, West was not charged for all 25 ceremonies because police only witnessed 19 of them.
West originally announced that he intended to continue performing same-sex ceremonies; however, on March 5, New York state judge Vincent Bradley issued a temporary restraining order barring West from performing any such ceremonies for a month. West indicated that he would abide by the judicial order while evaluating his legal options. On June 6, Ulster County Supreme Court Judge Michael Kavanagh made the injunction permanent.
On June 10, New Paltz Town Court Justice Jonathan Katz dismissed the charges against Mayor West, ruling that the district attorney had failed to show that the state had a legitimate interest in preventing the marriages, or that the law under which West was charged was constitutional. The district attorney said that he would appeal the ruling, and also indicated that he intended to continue forward with charges against two Unitarian Universalist ministers who had conducted ceremonies in the mayor's stead. A different New Paltz Town Court Justice dismissed those charges on July 13.
[edit] Involvement in UNUEA
As Mayor, Jason West took part in the creation of the United Nations Urban Environmental Accords in San Francisco in the Spring of 2005. He is one of sixty mayors from across the world who signed the original Accords.
A signatory to the United States Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement and the member of the international network Mayors for Peace, Jason West is also a founding member and serves on the steering committee of the Young Elected Officials Network; a nationwide organization of progressive poltiicians under 35.
[edit] Common Criticisms
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Many argue that Jason West is unnecessarily involving New Paltz in national politics by purposely engaging it in issues such as Gay Rights and Foreign Relations with the Middle East. Others believe that his activities concerning Gay Rights and Anti-War demonstrations were a drastic misrepresentation of his constituency.
West has proposed increasing his salary twice during the past 3 years. The first increase occurred in 2004 raising the Mayor's salary to $25,000. Recently West requested an increase of his salary to $40,000.
